SUBACUTE AND CHRONIC LOW-BACK-PAIN - RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF A SWEDISH VERSION OF THE ROLAND AND MORRIS DISABILITY QUESTIONNAIRE

The purpose of this study was to investigate test-retest reliability a nd concurrent validity of a Swedish version of the Roland and Morris D isability Questionnaire (RM-Sw), and to describe demographic factors i n patients with low back pain of at least 4 weeks' duration seeking ou tpatient physical therapy treatment in primary care settings. Seventy- two patients participated in the study, The intraclass correlation coe fficient for a one-week test-retest interval was 0.88. There was moder ate positive correlation with measures of perceived disability (r = 0. 64, p < 0.001; r = 0.69, p < 0.001) and pain severity (r = 0.54, p < 0 .001), and low negative correlation with measures of perceived life co ntrol (r = -0.32, p < 0.01) and general activity (r = -0.27, p < 0.05) . Gender, education and occupation were only moderately related to RM- Sw scores, explaining 14% of the variance in the scores. It is conclud ed that RM-Sw is a reliable and valid measure of functional ability in low back pain.